Making Friends Can Be Murder by Kathleen West

Listen up, folks. There's a new Kathleen West novel in town.  This is her fourth book and my new favorite.  Before I get into the reasons I love it so, let's all have a moment of respectful silence to honor this author who writes novels while simultaneously teaching our nation's youth full time.   This is no easy feat. As we all know, I can barely get a paragraph on this blog consistently during the school year.  But this isn't time for regrets and recriminations about my lack of focus.  It's time for celebrating Making Friends Can Be Murder by Kathleen West.  

Now, let's get to the point of the matter.  Why do I like book #4 so much?  Using a bulleted list, I'll now provide my reasons.

Making Friends Can Be Murder...

* has a fun quirky PREMISE.  Women named Sarah Jones work to figure out who killed another woman named Sarah Jones, but there's other stuff happening they don't know about, so they sleuth along and get the job done together after a slew of twisty turns.

* is a PAGE TURNER.  How do some writers create books that grab hold and don't let go?  We may never know, but I read this book in 2 days.  When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about when I could get back to reading it.  

*  is a MYSTERY with some ROMANCE on the side.  BONUS! I love romance and I don't care who knows it.

*  is refreshingly NON-AGEIST. Not only does the book feature strong, smart women characters, all the Sarah Joneses are different ages. Not super typical in books about women who are not in the same family.  The age differences make for some funny conversations and text threads, but the way they support one another is also absolutely endearing.

* is set in marvelous MINNEAPOLIS, one of our greatest American cities.  You know how Anne Tyler sets all her books in Baltimore, where she lives?  Well, come to find out, KC sets all her books in her home town of Minneapolis and references to key landmarks feature importantly throughout the book.  

There are other reasons I love the book, but we'll stop there because I don't like to spend a lot of time writing these blog posts, but if you feel like reading Making Friends Can Be Murder, you definitely should!